Method of making iron and steel



Patented May 19, 1925.

' 'mxno MIYAGUCHI, on TOKYOEU,-JAI"AN.

mn'rnon or MAKING IRON AND STEEL.

1Y0 Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, .TAKEO MIYAGUCHI, subject of the Emperor of Japan, and resident of Sendagayamachi, Toyotamagori, 5 Tokyofu, Japan,

and useful Improvements in the Methods of Making Iron and Steel, of which the following is a specification. This invention relates to a method of making, iron or steel on an industrial scale, said iron or steel containing a very low percenta e of nitrogen, manganese, sul hur and phosp orus, the iron or steel to be made from the raw materials such as iron ore, pig iron, scrap iron or scrap steel or the like which contains a certain amount of the above constituents. It is characterized by the utilization of boron or ferro-boron in the course of treatment relating to the manufacture of iron or steel. It has hitherto been roposed to manufacture boron iron or boron steel, but as far as I am aware,the method 'was merely experimental as de-' scribed in General Electric Review published in November 1918. In my invention either boron or ferro-boron is used in lace of a deoxidizing agent or agents suc as ferro-silico'n, ferro-manganese or aluminium in which case boron'or ferro-boron acts as a deoxidizing a cut as well as a denitrating agent, dephosp orating agent and desulphurating agent. In the rocess hitherto known, it was simply an al oyed process of boron and iron.

of boron oxide and a deoxldizing agent such as carbon, may be used in place of boron or .fer'ro-boron.

One object of the invention is to produce iron or steel containing a low percentage of manganese, from iron ore, pig iron, scrap iron or scrap steel, each of which normally contains a certain amount of manganese and from which the manganese has been previamount of these ingredients, by treating the have invented certain new melted with carbon scrap steel or the like, it

In my process, a finely powdered mixture ously eliminated by 'any known method. It'

' sired product.

Application filed October 19, 1921. Serial No. 508,816.

molten iron or steel containinga certain molten charge with ferro-boron or metallic boron. w 4 a I My process is as follows: First step. Melt the raw material andi add a certain amountof slag, and when iron 6 ore or the like is used as raw material it is to reduce 1t.

Second step As in themethods hitherto I I used, there is added a certain amount of oxide of iron to slightly oxidize the charge, and then carbon,' silicon, manganese and some of the phosphorus oxidizes and enters into the slag. By this treatment can be obtained a charge containing less than 0.10 r I cent of manganese and silicon. The slifg is replaced several times, if-desired, to clear the silicon, manganese, and phosphorus.

Third step. Add boron or ferro-boron to the charge and cover it with new slag.

Hereupon, this metal energetically combines with oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phos.-' phorus, whereby the desired treatment is completed. Finally add the desired percentage of carbon, etc., to arrive at the'desired composition of the steel. 1

' N 0w first I will describe about manganese. In the method of manufacture of iron or steel from iron ores, pi iron, scrap iron, has been customary to use ferro-silicon, ferro-manganese, alufl minium or ferro-titanium as deoxidizing agents, regardless of whether ornot the charge contain-a But in caseof t e em loyment of ferrosilicon alone as a 'deoxi izing agent, silicon remains as a residue, the action being imperfect. If ferro-manganese' be used together with ferro-silicon as a deoxidizing agent, there ma be a uniform distribution of the same wit in the molten iron or steel and the charge will be fully deoxidized, but

ercentage of manganeSeit is impossible to obtain a steel containing a low percentage of manganese. Further, in the case of aluminium, the desired treatment would be very costly and when a certain quantity of aluminium remains as'a residue, it is quite detrimental to the de- If ferro-titanium be used, its specific gravity is so low, that it will come to suspension in the upper art of the. charge 1 on which account it is di cult to obtain a product of uniform and homogeneous quality. 7

In general the elimination of manganese from iron or steel containing a certain percentage of manganese may be carried out as heretofore principally in electric furnaces or lwssemer converters. In the manufacture of steel in electric furnaces, wheniron oxide or iron ores are supplied to molteniron or steel and the latter are maintained in oxidizing condition, carbon, silicon and manganese will be removed. In case of the employment of Bessemer converters in the same art, carbon, silicon, manganese etc., will also be eliminated. from the molten iron by subject.- ing the latter to an air blast, but manganese thus eliminated from molten iron or steel will enter into the slag which is used on the surface ofjthe molten charge and sincethe produced-molten iron orsteel remains in an oxidized condition, it is essential to reduce it. For this purpose if a reducingagent such as ferro-silicon or the like. he introduced, a portion of manganese oxide inthe slag willalso be reduced to metallic manganese so as to combine with the. molten iron or steel. In consequence itbecomes essential to remove the'slag from the furnace as the means of clearing the manganese. From. the foregoing it is quite evident that the method commonly used in the manufacture of iron or steel as above outlined is rather complicated, ineffective and ,therefore unecononiical. compared with my process. In my process, although deoxidation can be performed simply by use of boron or ferro-boron instead of other dcoxidizing agents asheretofore mentioned, I still may use these other agents in the initial step of deoxidation and then use boron or ferro boron as a deoxidizing agent in the final treatment.

The following exemplify the tests of chemical analysis and of tensilestrength and elongation made on iron and steel manufacturedby my invention: r

. Manga- Tensile Elonga- Carbon nese in strength. tion. Test Sample. 130 ,pter per per square per cent. mm. cent.

Electric Steel 0.7 0. 05 63. 67 kilgrm. 25. 00 Electric steel. 1. 0R Trace 70. 67 17. 87 Electric Steel 1. l0 0. O8 72. 33 17. 00 Soft iron made by electric 0. 132 Trace 36. 73 41.66

. furnace.

I willnow describe the invention with regard to'the nitrogen. The iron and steel v I nitrogen contained in iron or steel gives rise to an undesirable: result so that such metal containing 0.008 per cent of nitrogen is said to be fragile.

If iron or steel is manufactured by electric furnace with cold scrap as a charge, there is a tendency of the nitrogen being fixed to the iron in the treatmentby the action of the electric are. It follows therefore that iron or .steel manufactured by an electric In the manufacture of steel as hitherto term-manganese,

proposed, ferro-silicon, aluminium or mixtures of these metals are used as deoxidizing' agent, but it is'hardly possible to produce steel containing a low percentage of nitrogen for the reason that each of the above metals are very poor in their affinity for nitrogen. and moreover these metals very often contain a certain quantity of nitrogen.

In case where ferro-titani-um or ferrovanadium is used as a deoxidizing agent, there arises of course moreor less elimination of nitrogen, butit is not so energetic as in the case where boron is used.

In the present inventiom'to raw materials melted in an'electric furnace or crucible furnace or the like at a suitably high temperature, or to the raw materials preliminarily melted and charged into the electric furnace or crucible furnace or the like, being maintained at suitable temperature, will he added boron or ferro-boron bya suitable method as hereinbefore described. In this case a portion of metallic boron combines with nitrogen contained inthe moltenjiron or steel and enters into the surface slag, and thus by once or twice replacing the slag. I have obtained iron or steel containing a very low percentage of nitrogen.

I wasaware that it mightbe possible to eliminate nitrogen contained in iron or steel to a certain extent by a method of heating and forging.

For instance,

I- first take a portion of a I test sample of steel ingot manufactured in an electric furnace. which is conventionally designated as A.- Next the ingot is annealed for a suitable time at a suitable temperature;

which is designated as B. and then the ingot .l is annealed and forged. which is designated as C the material C is further annealed and forged. which is designated as l). and the material D is finall annealed and forged several times. which is desig nated as It. As to the percentage of nitrogen contained in the above five different samples. it was found that the percentage of nitrogen was highest in A, and became succcssively lower in the order of samples, being lowest in E. It is therefore evident that when annealing and forging are repeated on iron or steel, the percentage of nitrogen contained therein will be successively reduced. However, such treatment is very troublesome in producing iron or steel containing a low percentage of nitrogen as in the present invention, which has the purpose to produce such a characteristic at the time. of making steel ingot from a molten charge.- In other words, the present invention has a decided advantage over the above method in substantially eliminating nitrogen and in requiring no steps of annealing and forging.

The following table is to give a clear idea as to the result of comparative tests made on some samples which were available in the market and samples produced according to my invention.

Test sample which Carbon Nitrogen was available in the in per in per Description. market. cent. cent.

0. 41 0.0087 Steel ingot 3. 50 0. 0070 Ingot 0. 45 0. 0060 Steel 0. 35 0. 0040 Hoop iron 0. I5 0. 0040 Pipe 0.0039 Chromium steel 0 63 0. 0000 0. 35 0. 0031 Drawn wire. Electric steel 0. 0. 0035 Steel ingot specially treated with ferrotitanium.

Test sample manu- Carbon Nitrogen factured under my in per in per Description. invention. cent. cent.

1. 24 Trace Ingot 1. 15 0.00175 Do. 0. Trace Do. 0. 15 0. 00200 D0. 0. 83 0.00150 Do.

Lastly I Will describe the action of boron' nace, there is elimination of phosphorus and sulphur in a treatment characterized in the electric furnace. The desulphuration is carried out when carbide is formed Within the slag used on the surface of the molten charge in a reducing atmosphere and also, there is a necessity for maintaining the temperature of the furnace at a high temperature for a suitable period of about 30 minutes. But in this case it is ditlicult to manufacture a product of less percentage of carbon due to the fact that a certain amount of carbon is present in the slag in case of the formation of carbide on the surface of the latter and also, there arises deterioration of the furnace by the high temperature. It

to less than 0.03 per cent; even though it may be possible to remove phosphorus to less than 0.01 per cent.

On the other hand such difficulties are obviated in my invention by the addition of boron or ferro-boron to molten metal within a crucible furnace or electric furnace or the like so that the phosphorus and sulphur are removed easily and effectively and in a short time of about 15' minutes, which fact has been proved by my investigation. w

The following table shows the comparative tests madeon iron and steel as to chemical analysis and mechanical tests.

Elonga- Special Tensile B. C. P. S. tion. in in in I in per cent.

- Cr N1 (3)---- 0. 38 0. 031 0.012 0.31 1.20"". 00.3 21

CI Ni (4) 0. 25 0. 4 0. 012 0. 003 0-(ii0 1.30..." 73. 2 25 Jr (5) 1. 01 0. 052 0. 042 0.0 72. 3 16 (B).-- 0. 0s 1. 06 0. 021 20 (2), (4) etc. indicates steel manufactured in accordance with my invention, the raw materials used being the ordinary Siemens Martin steel scraps which contain about 0.05 per cent of sulphur and phosphorus, while 1), (3) etc. each represents a commercial sample close in quality to each of the samples (2), (4) etc.

In my process, it is evident that there may be added in the charge as above described, certain metals, not interfering with the action of boron, such as tungsten, molybde num, chromium, cobalt or nickel or a mixture of two or more of these metals. If desired, it is permissible to add together in the charge titanium', or vanadium, which has a characteristic of eliminating some nitrogen.

\Vhat I claim: 7

1. A method of manufacturing iron and steel having a low manganese content, from manganese containing .ferrous materials, comprising, adding to the said ferrous materials, during the deoxidation stage, a boron containing material.

2. A method of manufacturing iron and steel according to claim 1, the ferrous material being subjected to a preliminary deoxidization.

3. A method of manufacturing iron and steel according to claim 1', tun ten, molybdenum, chromium, cobalt, nic el, titanium or vanadium being added to the molten charge. 1 V

4.'A method of manufacturing iron and steel according to claim 1, the ferrous ma .terial being subjected to a perliminary deoxidization, tungsten, molybdenum, chronium, cobalt, nickel, titanium or vanadium a being added to the moltenchargm 5. A method of manufacturing iroh and steel comprisin desulphurizing and dephosphorizing t e molten charge by adding thereto a boron containing material, said v molten charge being subjected to a preliminary oxidizing material.

6. A method of manufacturing iron or ing agents. 7 r

Signed at the. Embassy of the United steel comprising, desulphurizing, dephosphorizing and denitrating the molten charge by adding thereto a boron contain- States of America in the Empire of Japan this 26th dayof September A. D. 1921 in 30 presence of two witnesses.

TAKEO MIYAGU'CHI.

Witnesses:

' HIGORO WATANABE,

EUGENE'H. DOOMAN.

a compound ofboron oxides'and deoxidiz- 

